Stanley Cup Final Review

Stanley Cup Final Review

After eight weeks of battle we are down to the last two. The Los Angeles Kings, vying for their 2nd cup in franchise history (and in three seasons), up against the New York Rangers, going for their 5th cup (2nd in 74 years). Coming into this post season the common opinion was whoever wins the West will win the cup. As that goes the Los Angeles Kings were heavy favourites with the bookmakers.

Stanley Cup Playoffs - Conference Finals Review

Stanley Cup Playoffs - Conference Finals Review

We entered the second round with many predicting a repeat final four of Pittsburgh, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles. Two out of the four are heading home, for a holiday retreat or golf course. Chicago and Los Angeles are heading for the Conference finals again and if Chicago repeat as Western Conference champions they'll defend their Stanley Cup against a team whose last appearance in the cup final ending with them lifting the legendary trophy, Montreal in 1993, when they beat LA, and the New York Rangers in 1994, when they beat Vancouver.

Stanley Cup Playoffs - Second Round Review

Stanley Cup Playoffs - Second Round Review

Round one was so good it's hard to imagine how the second round could ramp up the intensity. Before we get started on the second round matchups we must say goodbye to eight teams. The Tampa Bay Lightning, Philadelphia Flyers, Detroit Red Wings, Columbus Blue Jackets, St Louis Blues, Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars, and, like the inevitability of a Tim Peel intent to blow call we say goodbye to the true nearly men of the league, the San Jose Sharks.

The Boston Bruins vs. the Salary Cap

The Boston Bruins vs. the Salary Cap 

Earlier on in the season, a scant six months ago or the day Henrik Lundqvist got his ass paid, I wrote about the potential struggle the New York Rangers management may face in the off season with pending free agents that need re-signing, and space becoming limited as a small amount of players would take over half the cap space. Then, a few days later, Rogers Communications made their monster $5bn deal for exclusive English language NHL game broadcasts in Canada to be shown on their SportsNet network. Making my whole New York Rangers vs. the Salary Cap post utterly and completely irrelevant. Thanks, Rogers. Thanks, Bettman.

Stanley Cup Playoffs - First Round Review

Stanley Cup Playoffs - First Round Review

The opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs is the most exciting, most unpredictable round of the playoffs. For me it all starts with the opening montage Tim Thompson of CBC's Hockey Night in Canada puts together that airs before the first game of the playoffs. This year he went with Metallica's For Whom The Bell Tolls for the backing track to accompany the clip montage which I think doesn't hold a candle last years that featured The Who's Baba O'Riley. 

Trade Deadline - Who will be the movers and shakers on March 5th?

Trade Deadline - Who will be the movers and shakers on March 5th?

Whether you prefer the crew of Dreger, McKenzie, LeBrun, McLennan and Ward on TSN, or Marek, Kypreos, Millard, MacLean and Stellick on Sportsnet one thing we know as hockey fans is on March 5th (next Wednesday) we will all somehow be glued to one of those channels like we do every August and January 31st for football's (soccer to any Northe American readers) Transfer Deadline Day on Sky Sports News.

Sochi 2014: Tournament in review

Sochi 2014: Tournament in review

The dust has settled on yet another Olympic hockey tournament, and for the 2nd consecutive games the Canadians have taken the top prize. But first we're going to look at what happened in the knockout phase (The next logical step after last weeks preview).

The future of the NHL at the Olympics

The future of the NHL at the Olympics

 

A lot of reporters stuck in Canada or the US, with not much to report during this short period without NHL action, have been shopping around the fact that the NHL and NHLPA have no agreement with the IOC to allow it's players to play beyond the current Winter Games. An argument that may have gained serious weight when New York Islanders captain John Tavares left Canada's quarter final with Latvia after receiving a knee-on-knee contact from winger Arturs Kulda.

 



The incident happened during the 2nd period. Tavares went away for examination, he never returned. That evening it was revealed that after an MRI on his knee that not only would John miss the rest of the Olympics, he would miss the rest of the entire season. Something that puts the idea of pulling NHL participation away in the future firmly in Islanders GM Garth Snow's mind.

 

The 23-year-old Canadian's season isn't the only casualty, the Florida Panthers lost rookie Alexander Barkov to a knee injury playing for Finland, and veteran forward Thomas Kopecky to a concussion playing for Slovakia. Also, the Detroit Red Wings lost captain and Sweden player Henrik Zetterberg to a back injury. Although this was already a niggling issue with the bearded centre. Diagnosed with a herniated disc, Zetterberg had surgery today (Friday 21st February) and could return in time for the playoffs should Detroit qualify.

 

A few injuries, which are to be expected in such a sport, coupled one pre-existing injury rearing it's head again shouldn't be enough to make anyone come to a rash decision. The Islanders and Panthers can seek solace in the fact that, with or without their fallen stars in their line-ups, their season was already over.

 

The NHL and NHLPA like to give us some spiel like "There are potential negative impacts with participating midseason in the Olympics and that factors into the overall analysis of whether it's a good idea for us to go or not," which was said by NHL Deputy Commissioner and chief legal officer Bill Daly.

 

USA & Blackhawks winger Patrick Kane has been quoted that he would like to go to the next games, what would be the NHL's 6th games, in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Patrick also said on the inclusion NHL players at the Olympics "It's pretty obvious to say it's good for the game," and universally the players want to continue with this way. The players that go love the chance to be able to represent their countries, as players like Kane are busy with the Stanley Cup Playoffs when the IIHF World Championships come around, and the players that don't go love the two week vacation.

 

I believe the players will compete in the Olympics as long as they want to. As we know, once the players want something they can be really stubborn. The last time the NHL and NHLPA butted heads we lost half a season.

 

And here's a little secret, that pretty much everyone knows. The NHL and NHLPA didn't agree to send the players to these games until eight months ago.

Sochi 2014 - The tournament so far......

Sochi 2014 - The tournament so far......

Editorial note: I must apologise for only writing one half of the preview I promised. I have a real job in the real world. Who knew?

Today, 16th February, we come to the end of the preliminary round and start to see how the knockout stage will shape up. The first set of games start on Tuesday, the 18th, as the teams seeded 5th-12th fight for the right to join the top four seeds in the quarter finals.

GROUP A

The two shocks coning from the group containing host nation Russia is not that they've finished 2nd, but two defeats suffered by Slovakia. The 8th ranked team in the world were on the receiving end of two crushing losses at the hands of 6th ranked USA and 17th ranked Slovenia, Slovenia's first ever Olympic hockey win.

Americans dominate the top point scoring table with four different skaters in the top ten overall, Phil Kessel (4G 3A), T.J. Oshie (1G 3A), Joe Pavelski (1G 3A) and James van Riemsdyk (0G 4A). David Backes and Paul Stastny the only other players with more than one goal. Russia has five players on one goal (Kovalchuk, Malkin, Ovechkin, Belov and Nichushkin) and one player on two goals, Pavel Datsyuk.



GROUP B

No surprises in this group as the reigning Olympic champions top the 2nd ranked team in the world. It was always going to be Canada and Finland topping this group since the draw was made.

Canadian coach Mike Babcock has been busy shuffling line combinations about over the last four days. Montreal goalie Carey Price with two wins in net, including this evenings crucial overtime win over the Finnish. Defenseman Drew Doughty had four goals including both against Finland. All of Canada's goal scorers ply their trade in the Western Conference, Doughty (LA), Carter (LA), Weber (NSH), Benn (DAL) and Getzlaf (ANA).

Canada head into the knockout round as the 3rd seed and Finland as the 4th.

GROUP C

World number one and one of the strongest favourites pre tournament, Sweden, top the group with a 100% record and head into the knockout stage as the 1st seed.

One surprise that jumps out is the Czechs finishing in 3rd and that they could only manage a win against Latvia, the 2nd lowest ranked team in the tournament. Talking of Latvia, they will face the
Swiss again on Tuesday.


Scoring leaders after the Preliminary Round

KNOCKOUT STAGE PREVIEW

The qualification playoffs, or wildcard round, is on Tuesday. The four winners play against a team from the top four seeds on Wednesday. The semi finals are on Friday with the bronze medal game on Saturday, before the gold medal is contested for at the Bolshoy Ice Dome on Sunday.

These are the dates and UK times of the rest of the tournament.

Qualification playoffs (Tuesday 18th):

Russia vs Norway 8am
Switzerland vs Latvia - 12:30pm
Slovenia vs Austris - 5pm
Czech Republic vs Slovakia - 5pm

Quarter finals (Wednesday 19th):

Sweden vs Slovenia/Austria - 8am
Finland vs Russia/Norway - 12:30pm
Canada vs Switzerland/Latvia - 5pm
USA vs Czech Republic/Slovakia - 5pm

Semi finals (Friday 21st): Noon, 5pm

Bronze medal game (Saturday 22nd): 3pm

Gold medal game (Sunday 23rd): Noon

EDIT (17th Feb): The games for the first two rounds have been allocated to the time slots above.

Just the prospect of the Canada/US semi final is making my mouth water. This is where it really steps up a level. Unless Russia can cause an upset I can't see anyone other than the top four as the last four.

Hope all of you watching have enjoyed the games so far, and other sports. (GO JENNY JONES!!! GO LIZZY YARNOLD!!!)

Enjoy the rest of the games and the hockey.

Psst..... we're nine days from NHL action returning!!!

Sochi 2014 - A glance at each team (Part 1/2)

Sochi 2014 - A glance at each team (Part 1/2)

In just over two weeks from now the elite nations in the world of hockey go at it for the dream of winning Olympic gold. Twelve teams, lowest ranked Slovenia (17th), go into three groups of four and do battle before being seeded for the single game knockout tournament, all available on the BBC through one platform or another. 

In these posts I'll be including previous appearances plus a look at who could be key players for each team, and each nations NHL representatives.

Note: if anyone wants to complain about the focus on the nations such as the US, Canada, Russia, Czech Republic, Finland and Sweden then I say, what did you expect? I'm not Austrian, Latvian, Norwegian, Slovakian, Slovenian, or Swiss.

So without further ado, let's get started. 

 

AUSTRIA - (Group B) IIHF Rank: 15th

13th appearance at the Olympics. One championship in their history. 1927 European Champions. Best Olympic campaign, 5th in 1928.



Captain Thomas Vanek.

They have eight of their 25 man squad that play outside the Eishockey Liga, Thomas Vanek & Michael Grabner (both New York Islanders) and Michael Raffl (Philadelphia Flyers) in the NHL, plus Stefan Ulmer, Raphael Herburger and Oliver Setzinger in the Swiss League system, Thomas Hundertpfund and Bernhard Starkbaum playing in the lower leagues of Sweden, yet still produce play that ranks them just outside the top nine who gain automatic berths into the tournament. 

Needless to say the danger men for their group B opponents will be the play in the NHL, Grabner, Raffl and Vanek. Grabner's speed, Vanek's hands, and Raffl's speed plus sense of the ice will be things all NHL fans, players and pundits will be aware of. 

One home based player with experience in North America is Thomas Pock, a former New York Ranger and Lake Erie Monster, could never settle and went back to Austria after his contract with Colorado ran out in the summer.

There aren't many more things to say about this team that do them any favours. They're the 3rd worst team in the competition on IIHF rankings and find themselves in a group with the powerhouses Canada and Finland, plus 9th ranked Norway. They'll likely finish in the bottom 4 at best and get knocked out in the first knockout round by a powerhouse nation.

CANADA - (Group B) IIHF Rank: 5th
Eight time gold medallists. 20th appearance. Medallists 14 times.




Sidney Crosby, captain and gold medal winning goal scorer
four years ago in Vancouver.

To hockey what England are to football. Winning it all is the national media's obsession. Coaches and captain constantly under the scrutiny if ever a slip up is made.
After the, UEFA Champions League draw style, long drawn out ceremony to announce the 25 man Olympic roster was made the internet was littered with Canadian rosters filled with 25 who were "snubbed" but their inclusion being as justified as the guys who did make it. One major difference between our nation of origin of football and the home nation of hockey.

Only four of the squad play for Canadian clubs (Luongo and Hamhuis of Vancouver & Price and Subban of Montreal), with the rest spread amongst 14 American clubs. Twelve members are survivors of the gold medal winning 2010 team, and only ten have experienced winning the Stanley Cup (four twice). 

The biggest issue facing Triple Gold Club member coach Mike Babcock is how best to deploy his stars. With Sidney Crosby and Jonathan Toews, the two best centres in the world, Toews more defensive but Crosby, best player in the world but was a passenger in 2010, impossible to find the right line mates. The one thing that seems to sort itself out is that their are three distinct pairs of club mates to be made on the attacking lines with, Crosby & Chris Kunitz (Pittsburgh), Toews & Patrick Sharp (Chicago), and Ryan Getzlaf & Corey Perry (Anaheim). Assuming these pairs, plus an extra winger, make up three of the four attacking lines, Babcock's next challenge would be how to fit others in, and who to leave out. Also assuming Crosby, Toews and Perry are the top three centres, the option for fouth would be a contest between John Tavares, Patrice Bergeron and Matt Duchene. Then that leaves four right wing spots and one left wing spot for the likes of Patrick Marleau, Jamie Benn, Rick Nash, Jeff Carter, and the in-human Steven Stamkos.

Not to mention the possible goalie controversy between Roberto Luongo and Carey Price. Both of which can go from best in the world to absolute worst in a space of 48 hours. Then there's the matter of which six defenseman start out of the eight selected. Though I'd pick Duncan Keith, Drew Doughty, P.K. Subban, Shea Weber, Alex Pietrangelo, and Marc-Edouard Vlasic.

For Canada gold is the target and the nation will go into national mourning if they come back with silver or less. Realistically, they should be guaranteed a bronze. 

CZECH REPUBLIC - (Group C) IIHF Rank: 4th
6th appearance as an independent nation. Two time medallists, gold in 98, bronze in 06.



Old man Jagr.

The Czechs boast the third highest number of NHLers on their roster with 17 spread amongst 13 teams. The two of the three oldest players the games in 42-year-old Petr Nedved and 41-year-old Jaromir Jagr. With Jagr being the only member of the only gold winning Czech team still playing. Of the 17 NHL players, six have won the Stanley Cup a combined eight times. Jagr and Patrik Elias the multiple winners. So for a team 4th in the world they don't have a lot of winning experience, but the 16 NHL skaters have accounted for a combined 399 points, or 24.9 per man, with David Krejci and Jagr leading the way, on 45 and 44 respectively.
The team has a terrific balance of young and old. The age gap between Nedved and the youngest member, Ondrej Palat, is 20 years. They'll to count on the youthful invention of players like Krejci, Palat, Radko Gudas, Jakub Voracek, and Michael Frolik. Mixed in with the experienced play of Nedved, Jagr, Elias, Marek Zidlicky, Thomas Plekanec, Michael Rozsival, Ales Hemsky, and Milan Michalek.

The of group of Sweden, Switzerland, and Latvia shouldn't be much of a concern. The winners of the Czechs and Sweden should win the group. It'll be very comfortable for them against the Swiss and Latvians.

FINLAND - (Group B) IIHF Rank: 2nd
14th appearance. Medal winners in five of the last seven tournaments. World champions in 1995 and 2011.

Tuukka Rask, on form best goalie in the world.

Along with Sweden and the USA, Finland have a group of three of the worlds elite goaltenders (Tuukka Rask, Kari Lehtonen, and Antti Niemi), and one left out due to injury in Pekka Rinne. 43-year-old Teemu Selanne is in the squad in what is the Anaheim Ducks man last go around as a professional.

Of the top six nations they have the joint most, with Russia, European based players. This will help as the ice in Europe is 15 feet wider than North American ice rinks.

The NHL contingent consists of Mikko Koivu, Jussi & Olli Jokinen, Tuomo Ruutu, Lauri Korpikoski, Valtteri Filppula, Sami Salo, Kimmo Timonen, plus the young talent group of Olli Maatta, Alex Barkov, Mikael Granlund, and Sami Vatanen.

Filppula leads the Finnish NHL players in scoring, putting up 40 points in an impressive debut season in Tampa since leaving Detroit as a UFA in 2013. 18-year-old rookie Alex Barkov has put up 24 points for the Florida Panthers, arguably one of the 3-4 worst teams in the league.

Like the Czech team it's a mix of experience and youth but on paper this team is a whole lot better. I'd be surprised if this team isn't in the gold medal game.

LATVIA - (Group C) IIHF Rank: 11th
5th appearance. Never finished higher than 9th (2002).

Buffalo Sabre, Zemgus Girgensens.

Conquerors of Team GB in the final qualifying tournament, Latvia head to Sochi with two NHL based players, Zemgus Girgensons and Kristers Gudlevskis of Buffalo and Tampa Bay respectively.

The goal for Latvia is to finish ahead of Austria and Slovenia, the only other teams that had to play qualifiers and the only two teams ranked lower than the Latvians.

There isn't much to say about this team.

NORWAY - (Group B) IIHF Rank: 9th
10th appearance. Finished 10th last time in Vancouver.

Mats Zuccarelo.

The lowest ranked of the nine automatic qualifiers, Norway have the bad luck of being lumped in with Canada and Finland. Mats Zuccarello completes the entire NHL representation on this team. Signed to the New York Rangers in 2010, Mats broke into the Rangers team last season and is having a fantastic 2013-14 season with 15 goals and 22 assists putting him 2nd in total points for the New York team.

The league most represented in the roster is the Swedish Hockey League including former NHLer Ole-Kristian Tollefsen who currently plays for 2011 SHL champs, Farjestad BK, and his club team mates Anders Bastiansen, Marius Holtet, and Martin Roymark. They also have two players for 2nd ranked Frolunda HC, Mathis Olimb and Mats Rosseli Olsen. One danger point for Group B defences to watch out for is Patrick Thoresen of the KHL's SKA St Petersburg who is a good hard checker and has averaged just under a point a game in the last three seasons including this season.

For me this team definitely makes the last 8. Then take your pick of which power house knocks them out.



The concludes part 1. Part 2 featuring Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the USA coming next week.